ALDERLEY Edge Parish Council has been praised for finishing a medical centre project on time despite ‘not inheriting any documents on the scheme’ from the previous Conservative-run council.

The praise comes from parish council vice-chairman Geoff Hall in a report to the council on the costs of completing the £3 million medical centre and Festival Hall scheme.

The medical centre houses a pharmacy, pregnancy consultancy, Pilates suite and personal trainer/physiotherapist, as well as the Festival Hall, building work on which was completed in the past few weeks.

“Nine volunteer, part-time councillors, together with a part-time clerk, is a very small group to draw on for what has been and continues to be a very costly and complex project,” said Cllr Hall.

“Before embarking on this project the largest single expenditure by the council was £30,000 for Christmas lights. This project required expenditure of £3 million.

“In spite of this massive leap in size there is no evidence the scale of this challenge was recognised by those initiating it, and it was embarked on without the detailed planning – including an assessment of the risks - it required.

“We did not inherit a single document from our predecessors showing how they planned to complete the medical centre and Festival Hall project - no detailed costings, no assessment of the risks, no analysis of how they would resource what was a major project.

“The final costs of the medical centre were £2,369,243, compared with a figure of £2 million, promised by the outgoing Conservative parish council to be the maximum cost.

"The additional costs could have been predicted by the previous Conservative parish council.

“The extra costs did not arise because of unexpected problems, nor because we changed the specification. Nor did we make any changes to the agreements on the table in May 2015.

“The differences arose because key costs on the centre had been overlooked by the previous parish council and because of a failure to plan the second floor.

“In addition, the implications of the costs on the council’s cash flow were not properly understood and addressed.”

He said the new parish council could not delay the project because there was a strict deadline to meet.

“At the same time we had – within days of the election – identified a £400,000 shortfall,” he said.

“Through an intensive work programme we were able to complete the build of the medical centre, with sign-off by the NHS a week before the deadline at the end of March 2016.

“We need to thank Jones Contracts, and our parish clerk, Anne Ross, for her extraordinary dedication.”

Cllr Hall will report on the Festival Hall next month and in January draw conclusions about the whole project and its impact on the council’s finances.